This invention relates to railway cars and more specifically is direoted to a railroad car for carrying one or more cargo containers of different widths.
Railway box car have been in use for a long time. In order to prevent pilferage, theft, or damage to the goods and to insure the efficient and safe delivery of the goods, they are invariably packaged into theft proof containers which are loaded and transported on the cars for unloading at their destination.
The sizes of the containers have been more or less standardized within the dimensions of a railway car. One such car particularly adapted for carrying containers is designated a well car. Such a car has end and side walls and a partial or full floor defining a well or cavity into which one or more rectangular containers can be longitudinally positioned. The container sides are generaly at least two or three times higher than the well depth.
Furthermore, containers can be double stacked when desired to increase the shipping load.
Well cars suitable for carrying containers are also for highway trailers. Such car are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,742, 4,400,121, 4,456,413. Static guides for directing a container into and out of the car are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,709.
The standardized width of the containers placed in the well conventially have a width eight feet or eight feet six inches. Therefore the width of the well must be slightly larger or longer than six feet eight inches to receive the wider container.
It is difficult to center such containers in such wells. Even when initially entered accurately, the rocking of the car in transit can cause the container to shift to one side or the other of the car unbalancing it and causing the car to tilt which presents a dangerous condition which could cause a derailment. Also, the load in the container can be damaged as a result of the unbalance condition of the container.
A need exists to provide an effective dynamically operable means for blocking the container within the car which can receive and securely contain in centered position containers of two different widths of which one is considerably narrower than the other which fits into the car.